shrimp with peanut sauce

I love the taste of peanuts in savory dishes.  I sprinkle peanuts on my Pho, even though it certainly isn't traditional.  I ask for extra peanuts for my pad thai, and I inevitably ferret out any peanut dishes if we visit a Chinese joint.  Needless to say (though I am going to go ahead and say it), I love Asian noodle dishes with peanut sauces.  Most often found dressing cold noodle salads, peanut dressings tend to be strongly flavored with a nice balance of sweet, hot, and savory-- I also think they posses an abundance of umami flavor.

I like peanut sauces in hot stir fries--also not traditional--particularly with shrimp and chicken.  I tend to make my peanut sauces by nosing around in the cabinet and fridge for flavors that go well with peanut butter, and I always use chunky because I like the added texture.  On this dish I made the peanut sauce with grated ginger, fresh garlic, hot red chile paste, chunky PB, soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, a dash of sugar, sesame oil, and a bit of water to thin it out.  It pays to taste your sauce carefully as you go and add ingredients in small increments, until you like what you taste.  In the past I have used lime juice, coconut milk, fresh hot chiles, five spice powder, worcestershire, lemon grass, mirin, tamari, and fish sauce--don't worry--not necessarily all at the same time.  If anyone wants the specifics for a decent recipe, email me, and I will spell out the details.

The shrimp got marinated for about 20 minutes in coconut milk, ground cumin and coriander, fresh ginger and lemongrass, and fresh hot chiles.

 shrimp only need a few minutes in a marinade, particularly if

there is an acid in it, which will begin to "cook" the meat

Next came the veggie prep.  I had fresh sweet pepper, bean sprouts, red onions, cilantro, and frozen peas.  I also had bunapi mushrooms, which I found in the crisper drawer three days later, so they got sauteed with some peas for another meal.

when doing a quick stir fry, prepping ahead is essential

shrimp are the first in the hot tub

then onions and peppers

and finally the sprouts, peas, and cilantro,

which should just be warmed through--still nice and crunchy

Finally, the shrimp goes back in.  Did I mention that I boiled up some noodles to serve with this dish?  I used Udon noodles, but any sort of noodle would do.  Rice would be nice, as well.  If you are using noodles, toss the noodles with a few generous dollops of the peanut sauce., and serve the stir fry on top.  It makes for a prettier presentation.  If you are using rice, add the sauce to the stir fry.

another scrumptious retreat from the usual holiday season fare

satisfying soup

I've blogged about soups before, and I think they are a great meal option any time of the year, but during the holiday season, I think they're essential.  'Tis the season of overeating, after all, and finding ways to make light but satisfying meals during the food marathon that starts with Thanksgiving and doesn't let up until the new year can preserve both your sanity and your waist line. 

This soup is the bastard child of two Italian soups--tortellini soup and pasta fagioli.  I love the tender bite of tortellini simmered in broth, but if soup is going to be the main course, and a mostly vegetarian course as well, I favor the rich flavors and hearty texture of  pasta fagioli.  I say "mostly" vegetarian here because I start the soup with chicken broth, but veggie broth would work as well.  Since I don't have any chicken stock in the freezer, I used the new Swanson unsalted cooking stock, which is not half bad.  I like being able to control the salt in each recipe.  I also added a dollop of chicken demi-glace, which I keep on hand in the freezer all of the time.  It adds a bit of body and richness to just about anything chicken.

The soup took about thirty minutes to make, starting with softened onions and garlic, sauteed in a bit of olive oil.

onions and garlic, sauteing in oil--never a bad place to start

Into the onion mixture went some oven-dried tomatoes I had on hand from last summer, but half a can of chopped tomatoes would work as well.  To that I added the broth and the demi-glace, a bay leaf, some salt and red pepper flakes, and a 14 ounce can of drained and rinsed small white beans, which have a very creamy texture.  

tomatoes enrich the broth and bring some welcome acid and sweetness

 While it simmered, I opened some fresh cheese tortellini, of the store-bought variety.  Some day I will try my hand at making tortellini, but it won't be for Tuesday night soup.  They simmered over medium low heat for about 10 minutes.

just before the tortellini were cooked, I added a big handful of arugula

I had arugula in the fridge, but any green would do--spinach, kale, mustard greens... If you are using a hardier green, you might want to add it at the same time as the tortellini.  While everything finished simmering, I toasted a little garlic toast made easy.  I whack a couple of garlic cloves and let them infuse in a bit of olive oil before I start any of the rest of the meal prep.  Then I just paint some on one side of slices of good rustic bread, and toast them in the toaster oven.  They are a perfect side with soup.

a delicious meal that is a refuge from the excess of the season

holiday practice run

I know you will have lots of sympathy for me when I tell you that I needed to make a practice run at Christmas dinner in order to write my newspaper column for next week.  No one should be forced to eat prime rib twice in one month.

I was in the grocery store, and saw a little single-rib standing rib roast.  I suppose to be accurate, I do need to call it by its correct name--it wasn't a "prime" cut, it was the much more readily available, and less shockingly expensive, "choice".  In fact, it was on sale for $6.49 a pound, which made it very affordable.  I brought it home, wrapped it in cheesecloth, and set it on a small rack on a dish in the fridge to dry age it a bit.  Dry-aging at home is a trick Jim and I first tried a few years back after seeing Alton do it, and surprisingly, it does make quite a difference.  The meat, after four or five days in the fridge, takes on density and suppleness that you just don't see in a roast straight out of it's cellophane prison.

dry-aged roast--I should have taken a before pic for a comparison,

but my well-aged brain doesn't think that quick any more

The best way to cook a standing rib roast has to be one of the most contentious cooking topics under discussion out in cyberspace.  High heat first, then low.  Low heat first, then high.  How low?  175, 200, 250, 275... How high?  400, 425, 450, 475, 500.  Or, 350 steady on.  High heat all the way.  Sear first, don't sear.  Simple seasoning with salt and pepper.  Complicated marinade or rub.  There is even a Paula Deen method that involves cooking the roast for an hour on 350, turning off the oven, and letting the roast sit in the unopened oven for another three hours.  Though that method has its advocates, I doubt I will ever try it, because when I am cooking a grand roast dinner, I don't really have the time to tie up my lone oven for four solid hours.

Since I had a very small roast, I opted for scoring the fat (for more surface), searing it first (just the top, not the sides) and convection cooking it at 250 degrees.  With the roast at 2/12 pounds, that took about an hour.

it took about 10 minutes to sear off this small roast, and start

the browning process-- a large roast will take a few minutes more

I like the sear, rather than the blast in a very hot oven, because it browns the surface rather than heating the entire roast like a scorching oven would.  After the sear, I coated the meat with a wet rub of garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  I settled on a 250 degree oven because it was gentle enough to keep the meat nice and pink throughout, but not so gentle that I was going to spend most of the afternoon babysitting a roast.  And babysitting it is.  Temperature is everything if you want rosy pink, juicy meat.  If you prefer gray shoe leather, then wander off and read Anna Karenina, by all means.

The correct temperature to take it out of the oven for medium rare is also a contentious point.  In my opinion, most of the recommendations, both on the web and in cookbooks, skew too high.  I have settled on between 110 degrees and 118 degrees for beef, depending on the cut.  If there is no bone, I skew toward the lower end, because the meat has less protection from the heat.  If it is on the bone, I tend to land between 115 and 118, depending on the size of the cut.  For this small roast, 118 was the magic number.  Yes, I know.  When you look in any cookbook, medium rare clocks in at 135 to 140.  Well, the issue that never seems to get addressed is thermal gain during the rest.  And a roast needs a rest out of the oven.  You would too, if you just spent a few hours in a 250 degree sauna.  After a thirty minute rest, my little roast had made its way all the way up to an internal temperature of 136 degrees, which is perfect.

my resting roast, foil removed for portrait sitting,

surprisingly brown on the sides after a low temp cooking.  

I think that the convection action really aids browning

While the roast recovered from its ordeal, I made some popovers, along with a jus, or thin gravy if you aren't Frenchified.  I want to burst another little myth out there in cooking land.  It is common for recipes to admonish cooks that whatever pan or cups they are cooking their popovers or  Yorkshire puddings in must be smoking hot before the batter is added, or they won't puff.  Well, I have done it both ways, and it's utter poppycock.  I think, the only real differences between a popover and a Yorkshire pudding are that Yorkies are always made with beef fat from a roast, and usually cooked in one big piece, often right in the roasting pan.  Popovers can use any sort of fat, and are usually individual servings.

popovers, started in a room-temperature pan--

if that isn't puffed, I don't know what is...

Taking the popovers out of the oven a few minutes before they are done, poking a couple of holes in them with a skewer, and putting them back in the oven to finish browning will release some of the steam, and keep the popovers from becoming too soft and doughy.

I made a broth of wine and beefstock on the stove, then added

the aromatics and what little drippings there were after the meat came out--

the addition of some agar-agar (an asian gelatin) gave it a very silky texture

The roast was juicy and pink, served here with mashed peas,

a popover, and the strained jus on the side

So, with this experiment under my belt, I am entering the roast beef fray.  Sear, then into a 250 oven until the roast hits 118, then at least a 30 minute rest.  That's my two cents.

Californa style beef tacos

When I make stock, it always seems a shame not to use the meat that is strained away in the end, even though it has had the dickens cooked out of it.  For chicken, I use mostly wings and necks, so it isn't that much of an issue.  But for a beef stock, I often buy oxtails, which can be very meaty, and the beef very tender after a trip through the pressure cooker, which is my weapon of choice for producing great stocks without the interminable wait, skimming, and fussing.

I made beef stock the other day in anticipation of roasting a rib roast for Christmas (see above), and I had all of this wonderful shredded beef as a result.  That sent my mind back to my favorite taco joint of all time (Chris will remember this) in Salt Lake City.  Of course I can't remember the name of it because I am increasingly senile, but I certainly do remember the California-style beef tacos, which are much tastier and much lighter than those ubiquitous in most other places, featuring rubbery hamburger drowning in cheap cheese, sour cream, and iceberg lettuce. (Though I will admit that a well-prepared version of that style, minus the  "rubbery" and the "cheap" does have its place in my occasional cravings.)

A California-style taco, at least to my knowledge, as well as a traditional Mexican taco, is served on a soft, fresh corn tortilla, the meat is shredded rather than ground (at least in the ones I gravitate toward), and garnished with little but some chopped onions and cilantro, along with your choice of salsa and a squeeze of lime.  I had my shredded beef, but it wasn't cooked in the aromatics I prefer for tacos, so I doused it with a little of the freshly made beef broth, and added in a handful of chilis, cilantro stems, and salt to infuse the meat.  (I never salt my stocks, so the meat was bland.)  While that simmered, I made some corn tortillas, which isn't difficult, but if you buy, buy the best ones you can find.  Just be warned, making a trip to the Mexican market can take longer than just making the damn things yourself.

The beauty of these tacos is their simplicity and lightness--

no fat added anywhere, and the satisfaction of spicy salsa, 

crunchy onions, and aromatic cilantro

To up the nutritional punch, I made a side of black beans and veggies, with both hot and sweet peppers, onions, cumin, and cilantro.

no added fat here, either--I just simmered the veggies

in a bit of the beef stock, which was already defatted

Sorry for the lack of pics in this post.  Several of the pics I took were too blurry to post.  I am a better cook than I am a photographer.  I don't know why my little point-and-shoot does great on some shots, and so terrible on others.

savory, crunchy holiday treat

During the holidays, when we go to parties or dinners, I like to take along a little home made treat.  But cookies and candy seem problematic to me.  For one thing, everyone usually has an abundance of those already, prefer their own family favorites, and they take a lot of time and labor.  For the past couple of years, I have made spiced pecans, which are smoky-sweet and delicious, but good quality nuts can get expensive.

Yesterday, it occurred to me that there is a little trend going on in the celebrity chef world that I pay so much attention to.  Popcorn with exotic savory flavors, either used as a garnish on a plate, or served as an appetizer.  So I set out to develop a warmly spiced, slightly hot, slightly sweet popcorn that would last a couple of weeks if sealed up, and make a nice gift in a little holiday tin.

I thought that microwave popcorn would make prep super-easy.  The hardest part was finding microwave popcorn that didn't have fake butter flavors, or kettle-corn flavors, or cheese flavors already added in.  I finally did find a brand without added flavors, but I couldn't find any that didn't have added salt.  For that, I was going to have to pop corn the old fashioned way.  I settled on the plain salted popcorn, and omited added salt in my coating.

For 1--3.5 ounce bag of popcorn, I melted 4 tablespoons of butter, added 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of curry powder, a teaspoon of chili powder, about a half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and few twists of fresh ground pepper.

I cooked the spices, sugar, and butter over medium heat,

until the sugar melted and began to bubble

Once the sugar was melted, I added two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, and about a tablespoon of very finely chopped fresh rosemary.  Don't even think about using dried--it will not taste the same, and very likely burn.

fresh rosemary leaves are stiff, and very easy to chop fine

I spread the popped corn out on a silpat in a sheet pan, picked out the kernels that didn't pop, and drizzled the spice mixture over the popcorn, stirring to get everything well coated--don't use your hands to stir unless they are made of asbestos since melted sugar is roughly the same temperature as molten lava.  That went into a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes to dry.

 stirring a couple of times while the popcorn is in the oven

will help distribute the flavor through the popcorn

this stuff was yummy, spicy-sweet, with just a touch of heat--

addictive

leftover extravaganza begins

I had turkey, turkey carcass, veggies (both cooked and uncooked), stuffing, and heaven knows what else filling my fridge, so I needed a leftover meal for tonight's dinner.  I love chicken and dumplings.  I love stuffing.  I thought I had a brilliant idea.  What if I could turn leftover stuffing into dumplings and make a turkey and dumpling soup?  So, I did a quick search on Foodtv.  And sure enough, someone had already done that very thing.  I found a recipe for turkey and stuffing dumpling soup.  The recipe was intriguing, but since I am hard-wired to be incapable of following any recipe, I made a few changes.  I used only fresh veggies (didn't want to muddy up the soup with cooked veggies), added a couple of healthy dollops of leftover mashed potatoes to make the soup more like a creamy stew, and added baking powder to the dumplings to make them puff up a little lighter than they would be with just the addition of egg and flour.

I started out with the turkey carcass last night, simmering it in plain water for a couple of hours, then chilling it in the fridge overnight.  Plucked the meat off of the bones, strained the broth, and reduced it on  the stove without the meat to intensify the broth flavor, and avoid overcooking the meat.

Then I added some carrots cut in batons, and sliced onions, cooking them just until they were barely tender, about 20 minutes.  I added a couple of big spoonfuls of mashed potatoes to thicken the soup and add some richness.

reduced broth with mashed potatoes, carrots and onions cooked just until tender

Next in the pool:  diced celery, chives, fresh thyme, and the turkey--all left over from the big day.  No trips to the store, or the garden.

the celery, turkey, and herbs will heat up in the time it takes to bring 

everything back to a simmer, then in go the dumplings

The dumplings whipped up in the food processor in a few seconds.  For a small pot of soup, I used a cup or so of leftover stuffing, an egg, a small dollop of light cream, a teaspoon of baking powder, and about a quarter cup of flour.  My stuffing was bread-based, but I can't imagine why this wouldn't work with a cornbread stuffing.

The dumplings got rolled into balls the size of the ping-pong variety, and dropped into the soup.  After a few minutes, I flipped them over to cook the other side.  They plumped up nicely, were tender and light, and the veggies in the soup still had a bit of al dente bite to them.  It was a light, flavorful version of the overblown feast from the day before.

I even recycled the dining room flowers to the kitchen table,

and the soup got a bright addition of fresh parsley

turkey dumpling soup comes in for its closeup 

Thanksgiving for 3

This year, Thanksgiving at my house was for Jim, my mom, and me.  It is actually a little daunting to figure out how to prepare a feast for three, without having a mind-boggling pile of leftovers.  GE was giving their employees free turkeys, so there was no paring down there.  We ended up with a 12 pound bird.  In the past, I have suggested cooking a small breast and a leg, but Jim wants to see that whole beast in all its glory, so whole bird it was.  Can't argue with free, anyway.

We have a rotisserie for the grill, and the weather this week was calm and warm, so I decided to do the bird on the grill, just to see how it would turn out.  That meant no drippings for the gravy.  In anticipation of that, I bought a couple of turkey wings and a few chicken drumsticks to make a turkey stock.  I roasted those off on Monday, to make a nice brown stock, complete with roasting-pan drippings.  I made the stock in the pressure cooker, from the meat and bones, an onion, celery, parsley, thyme, and a few whole spices.  The resulting stock was easy to turn into a mushroom gravy that was every bit as good as gravy made from pan drippings, and actually a lot less work.

make-ahead turkey stock made a rich mushroom gravy, and easy clean-up--

no drippings to de-fat, no roasting pan to clean

I'm hacked off at myself for not taking a picture of the bird on its spit, but the end result was a very moist and flavorful bird that required no basting or fussing with.  I put herb butter under the skin, tied  it up to keep anything from flopping around, skewered it, and let the motor do the work.

the bird cooked on the rotisserie was golden brown all over--

I will certainly use that method again

for a veggie, I made my version of green bean casserole.  I made a creamy mushroom soup with a roux, half and half, mushrooms, lemon zest, and a bit of nutmeg, salt, and pepper.  I sliced up some shallots, dusted the rings in cornstarch, and fried them in a few batches in a little pan I have, which meant using less oil, and making less mess.

little frizzled shallot rings--so much better than the canned stuff

my version of green bean casserole--easy to make and

not a can in sight

I made the apple and sage dressing, and the cranberry relish that I love a couple of days ahead, so all I had to do was bake the dressing, and get everything out on the table.  This year I managed to be so prepared that I felt a bit cheated out of my usual turkey day cooking marathon.  All I really needed to do after the turkey was on the grill was make the mashed potatoes and green beans, and dish everything up.

dinner for three--including sliced, canned cranberry jelly,

because both my mom and Jim insist

oops, nearly forgot the black raspberry tart--

I love the rustic look of the free form crust

We still have a pile of leftovers, but nothing out of control.  So tonight I am going to make a turkey stew with dumplings made from leftover stuffing.  I think it should be tasty.  Stay tuned for the leftovers marathon.

baked ziti, really?

Jim was browsing through a Cook's Illustrated magazine I had out on the kitchen table, when he spotted a recipe for baked ziti that he wanted me to make.  Really?  Baked ziti?  The only memory I had of baked ziti usually involved some awful Italianesque buffet table, sporting a dish with mushy, over-cooked pasta coated in dried-out sauce, and topped with a rubbery coat of cheese.  No thanks.  But, the magazine article swore it fixed all of those problems, so I thought, "Why not give it a whirl?"

The basic recipe included both tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, cottage cheese rather than ricotta, garlic, fresh basil, heavy cream, oregano, mozzarella, and Parmesan.  Along with ziti, of course.  I didn't have any ziti, but I did have penne, and plenty of it, so I used that instead.  Jim likes some meat in most of his meals, so I added in some browned hot Italian sausage.

The recipe called for creamy cottage cheese, which is often labeled "country style".  That gets combined with a couple of eggs.

cottage cheese?  I'll give it a whirl--whisked up here with two eggs

The sauce involved sauteing the garlic, adding both tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, oregano, black pepper, and a bit of sugar to highlight the tomato flavor.  I had a few late season tomatoes hanging about on the counter, so I chopped those up as well, and added some sausage I had cooked off earlier.

so far so good--the sauce was nicely balanced.  I added

the fresh basil at the last minute

While the sauce simmered for a few minutes, I whisked a teaspoon of cornstarch into the heavy cream, and cooked that until it had thickened.  Then that is stirred into the cottage cheese mixture.  The pasta gets boiled for about half the normal cook time, so it is VERY al dente.

mozzeralla gets cubed--easier to do if it goes into the freezer for 

half an hour

Once the pasta is cooked, some of everything gets combined in the pasta pot--the pasta, a cup of the tomato sauce, half of the mozzarella, and the cottage cheese.

not particularly appetizing to look at at this stage, 

though it was very creamy

That mixture gets put into a casserole, topped with the remaining tomato sauce, and dotted with the remaining mozzarella, along with a generous grating of parm.  It is then covered with foil and baked for about 30 minutes.

30 minutes in the oven, then the foil comes off

30 minutes more, and the top is crisp and brown

the final dish, after a 20 minute rest, was quite tasty

Okay, so it was good.  But it was complex to prepare, along the lines of a good lasagna in terms of steps and pots, pans, bowls, and mess.  Like lasagna, it can be prepared ahead, and the kitchen mess tackled well ahead of dinner, but if I am going to go to that much trouble, I think I will stick with the more complex and versatile lasagnas I make.   It made a lot.  So we have an uncooked pan in the freezer.  I'll be interested to see how it is after a stint in cold storage...

tender pork chops

Keeping pork tender has gotten more complicated since breeders bred the fat out of pigs during the fat scare of the 80s caused pork sales to dwindle.  As a result, common cooking methods began to yield dry, tough meat that didn't taste of much.  I hate the lemming-like way people respond to public health scares.  There is nothing wrong with reducing the overall fat in your diet, but ruining the quality of a product is not the way to do it.  Nevertheless, I am stuck either figuring out ways to cook the rib chops that Jim loves, or spending a fortune on mail order heritage chops, and that is not going to happen any time soon.

When you don't have fat to help retain moisture in meat, then salt makes a pretty good substitute.  As does buying chops on the bone, which helps protect the meat from high temperatures.  With bone-in chops, I like to "dry brine", which consists of liberally salting the chops on both sides and letting them rest on the counter for about an hour.

osmosis first draws water out of the chops, then

draws it back in where the salt both flavors the meat and 

helps retain the moisture during cooking

After the chops have been brined for an hour, excess salt can just be dabbed away before cooking.  Earlier this year I tried a Cook's Illustrated technique that recommended cooking the chops low and slow, and searing them off at the end to get color.  I couldn't detect any difference, so I am back to browning first, then building a sauce right in the pan and simmering the chops over low heat until they are done.  Being careful not to overcook chops is the second trick for keeping the meat moist and tender.  Chops are done at 145 degrees, and perfectly safe to eat when there is still the barest hint of pink in the meat.

a light golden sear is all that is necessary when the chops

are going to be simmered in a dark sauce

For this preparation, I started with mushrooms, sliced shallots, minced garlic, Madeira, and a demiglace.  If you don't have demiglace, beef or chicken broth will work fine.  I love these little packets of demiglace because they add wonderful body to sauces, don't take up much room in the pantry, and once they are opened, they freeze wonderfully.  I use the veal, chicken, mushroom, and seafood.

yes, I was going to add broccoli to this dish, and no,

it didn't make it in--I found it the next morning in a bowl in

the microwave, where I was going to blanch it before I added it to the sauce

After searing the chops, I removed them from the pan, added a small knob of butter, and sauteed the mushrooms and shallots until they gave up some of their moisture and began to brown.  Then I added the minced garlic for about 30 seconds, just to release its fragrance.  Garlic is very easy to burn.  I then added about a half a teaspoon of thyme and deglazed the pan with about a half a cup of the Madeira, which adds a fantastic flavor to sauces.  I then added a cup or so of water, and a spoonful of the demiglace.

mushrooms take about 5 minutes over medium heat to 

release their moisture and begin to brown

once the sauce is built, the chops go back in and 

simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes

An instant-read thermometer is a great way to make sure the chops don't go above 145 degrees.  Since this is a heart dish, I thought it would pair nicely with whole wheat noodles, but mashed potatoes would be great, too.

the chops, garnished with some sliced green onion,

were tender and moist

Wish I had gotten the broccoli in there, but it was out of sight, and I was out of my mind to put it in the microwave before I was ready to cook it.

savory dressing

I have some catching up to do here, so I will be making several posts in the next few days.  Guess I got a bit lazy about posting for awhile, but I have been cooking, same as usual.

So to start things off in the proper holiday mood, let's talk about dressing, or stuffing as it is often called, though I prefer to "stuff" the bird with aromatics, and let the dressing cook on its own.  I think it shortens the cooking time of a turkey, and lessens the chance of ending up with breast meat the texture of particle board.  Stuffing, or dressing, is the main event for some people, so I like to make it interesting.

First comes the bread.  I choose a hearty bread, like a boule of Italian or French bread, and remove the crusts if they are particularly tough.  The wisdom of the day is to use stale bread because it is drier, but a little research led me to the understanding that staling is not the same as drying, and I have come to the conclusion, mostly by tasting the end product, that cubing and drying the bread in the oven is the best approach to having bread that will absorb plenty of moisture and make for a creamy, rich dressing.

toasted pecans add a nice crunch to dressing,

and they can be toasted in the oven, right along with the bread

The aromatics bring both flavor and texture to a good dressing, and I like to mix it up a bit with apples, onions, and celery.  In the past, I have added dried cranberries, or mushrooms and shallots, or toasted walnuts with dried apricots.  The lovely thing about a dressing is that it can be whatever you're in the mood for.

the appearance of honeycrisp apples in the market steered me

to apples, onion, and celery--a great flavor combination

Chopping everything in a small dice, and sautéing the aromatics in a couple of tablespoons of butter will assure that the mixture will be tender, and release its flavors into the finished dish.    For one round loaf of bread I used one apple, two ribs of celery, and one medium yellow onion.  I had fresh sage in the garden, so I used it, but dried sage will work just fine.  I love the flavor of sage in dressing, so I use quite a bit.  It isn't an exact science, just add as much as you like--or add thyme or tarragon instead, if that is what floats your boat.  For this amount of dressing, I would probably add about a heaping tablespoon of dried, rubbed sage.

beautiful, fresh sage from the garden--

here in South Carolina I will continue to get fresh sage through December 

I tossed the toasted bread with the chopped pecans, a bit of salt and pepper, the sautéed veggies, the sage, and a few grates from a whole nutmeg for the warmth it brings.  Then I stirred in two whole eggs for a binder, about a quarter cup of cream, and about 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth.  Just keep adding broth until you have a soft texture, but not so much that the bread loses its shape completely.  I'm okay with eating uncooked egg, so I just taste the raw mixture for seasoning.  If you are worried about raw egg, sauté a bit of the mixture until it browns up, and taste that to be sure you don't need more salt, pepper, or herbs. 

the prepared dressing will benefit from an hour or so rest in the 

fridge, covered with foil

The dressing will bake covered in foil in about an hour in a 350 degree oven, uncovered for the final 20 minutes.

the crunchy brown bits are my favorite part--

unfortunately much of the crusty top was picked away by

vultures before I had a chance to take a photo

I suppose I must confess that I may have been one of the vultures stealing morsels of the crunchy stuff.  Oh well.  You have to get in there to get the good stuff.